Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Key Indonesian agencies are working hard behind the scenes to sabotage attempts to improve relations between Australia and Indonesia.

The anti-Australian sentiment is being fuelled by the invention of Australian transgressions, such as the alleged support for a landmark conference early this month that demanded independence for the Indonesia's far eastern province, Papua.

Australian officials in Jakarta have repeatedly told the Indonesian Government that no Australian non-government organisations attended the conference or operated in the province, formerly called Irian Jaya.

Categorical statements by the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, and Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, that Australia will always support Indonesia's rule of Papua, are ignored. The misinformation campaign has created a widely held belief in Jakarta that Australians are meddling to try to win Papua's independence.

The truth is that Australian activists were refused Indonesian visas to attend the week-long conference in the provincial capital, Jayapura. Despite claims to the contrary, the only Australians present at the conference were journalists.

But the campaign is working. Anti-Australian demonstrations have started again outside our embassy, where protesters routinely burn the Australian flag.

An on-again-off-again visit by Indonesia's President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, to Australia is again in doubt. The Indonesian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee is demanding he put off the trip until Mr Howard visits Indonesia first.

No Indonesian president has visited Australia since 1975. Shortly before meeting Mr Howard in Tokyo last week Mr Wahid said that "many people in Indonesia now object to my visit because there are Australians who have aided the creation of independence for Papuan people".

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab, one of Mr Wahid's closest advisers, was the first to claim that several unnamed Australian non-government organisations were interfering in Papua.

He provided no evidence and did not retract the statement despite Australian assurances. Mr Shihab has made clear in public statements he does not see improving relations with Australia as an immediate priority for his country.

He appears to be among a powerful group in Jakarta that still resents what Australia did last year to stop Indonesian-sponsored bloodshed and destruction in East Timor.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, places no significance on the meeting between Mr Howard and Mr Wahid in Tokyo, despite it being portrayed by both as a positive first step in building a relationship between them. "Howard should come to Indonesia first," Mr Yasril was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia newspaper.

Despite the anti-Australian propaganda, Mr Wahid continues to speak positively about his country's future relations with Australia and says he still wants to make the visit, possibly in late July. The trouble for Australia is that nobody else in Jakarta is publicly supporting him.